Main menu

You are here

Zebulon B. Vance, USS

by Harry S. Warren, 2006

The USS Zebulon B. Vance was launched in Wilmington on 6 Dec. 1941, one day before the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. At the ceremony, North Carolina governor J. Melville Broughton proclaimed, "As we salute this ship and launch it today, we shall have a proud part in the overthrow of the aggressor who seeks to dominate the entire world." A few minutes later he and 13,000 other North Carolinians watched the ship splash into the Cape Fear River.

The Vance measured 441.5 feet long and was 56 feet wide at the beam. Its gross tonnage of 7,177 drew 27 feet of water; powered by a 2,500-HP engine, the Vance could reach a running speed of 11 to 14 knots. The ship had quarters for 44 officers and enlisted men but "none for passengers." Construction costs were estimated at $1.5 million.

For most of the war the Vance served as a freighter. It survived floating mines and a near miss by a torpedo and took part in the invasion of North Africa. Near the war's end the Vance was converted into a hospital ship and renamed the USS John J. Meany. After the war it was transferred to the Army Transportation Corps and once again named the Zebulon B. Vance. The vessel was used to convey British and other war brides to the United States.

References:

North Carolina Shipbuilding Company, Five Years of North Carolina Shipbuilding (1946).

Comments

The _ZB Vance_ was also used to transport US dependents back to the States. I was on it in Sept. 1948. Sixteen and one-half days from Bemerhaven to NCY! But our experience on the ZBV was nothing like the account in the "War Bride Experience" on line. We had four to a cabin (yes, cabins) usually two fathers and two sons or two mothers and two daughters, waiter service in the dining room. No complaints except for the ship's slowness; old reciprocating engines. But happy memories!